I used a bottle wort for a starter last week that I had bottled in Sept 2006. It smelled and tasted like fresh wort when I opened it, so I figured it must be ok. When I bottled it over 3 years ago, I did as BP suggests...I poured the boiling wort in a sanitized bottle and set a sanitized cap on the top and allowed it to cool for a few minutes before sealing the cap. While it cooled, the bottle and cap was covered with a paper towel that had been soaked in StarSan in order to prevent any beasts from sneaking into the bottle before it was sealed.